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How to draw hair that does not look like a haystack

Hair is always a tricky thing to draw because it comes in so many different shapes and there are so many little strands!

The most common problem that young elves run into when we begin drawing hair is we start drawing every single strand! The hair ends up looking like a haystack of lines and that is not what we want. (Although, I admit that sometimes when I wake up in the morning my hair does look like that.)

There is a trick to drawing hair that I want to share with you:

Look for the big shape!

Instead of looking at every single strand or even lock of hair, look at the overall big shape of the hair, as though it was one big object.

As you can see, no matter the hairstyle, you can draw one bigger shape. If you feather the ends a little, it immediately gives the feeling of loose hair.

So, let’s create some hair step-by-step.

Step 1: Begin with drawing the big shape.

Step 2: Pick a light source. This is where the hair will be the lightest. I have left a white spot where I want my light source to be and then just shaded the rest in very lightly. Be careful not to press too hard with your pencil when you do this. You just want a soft gray tone.

Step 3: Now, by pressing a little harder with your pencil, but still not so hard that the line is all black (or using a softer pencil such as a B4), you can draw a few strands to give it texture. Remember to keep the parts the furthest away from the light source the darkest. Don’t create too many lines to show strands, otherwise it will look messy. Notice now I have still left white parts and kept my overall big shape!

Step 4: Add some additional darker lines. This is so the hair gets more volume. (Note: Nothing is erased from Step 3. Step 4 is drawn on top of Step 3, only with darker lines.)